From: Roberto Chiavini Subject: More Game Reviews IMPERIAL GOVERNOR/STRATEGOS (Ariel) Year: 1979 Designer: Ken Broadhurst Games played: 2 Review: This is a game made in Great Britain, a cross between a strategic wargame and a diplomatic game, not too succesful in both cases. The map reproduce, with hexagons, all of the ancient Europe, the Mediterrean and the Near East and all the most important people emerging in Ancient time (without too strict historical veridicity: so you can use in the same time Macedonians, Romans, Carthaginians and the like; but this is not too important for the play). The graphics are very low for today standard (espec ially the counters, made with glossy colours, that I found, even for the old standard, totally inadequate and certainly sign of bad taste for the designer). The system is an hybrid, which is too simple for a strategic game (it doesn't take in account, for example, any supply rules), but the presence of an hexagonal grid is inopportune for a diplomatic game Machiavelli-style. So this strange mix doesn't worl in both cases. Anyway, this is a multiplayer game for up to six persons (and it works better with five or six players), with a lot of chrome: you have random event card, diplomatic gifts (a nice touch), a compleat diplomatic system, a rather "spartan" combat system, and a lot of confused rule (like the one regarding troop disbanding, which it's open to mischievous act by the smart players in your group). Even the victory conditions are open to major adjustaments by your group of players, as they are totally confused as they stand. A beer and pretzels almost family game, with an ancient flavor (you can say stale flavor) good for a couple of match with very good friends (who couldn't be so at the end of the play, if you don't take it as a joke). STRATEGOS is the twin of the previous game, sold in the same package, a simulation of the Peloponnesian War for two player. All in all, it's the same system without the diplomatic touch, more historical (but only a little more so) and with better rules. There are rules on Sicily, Persia, fortresses (to subtract tributes to the other player). And the collection of tributes is the base of the game: each region on the map, in fact, produce two diff erent kind of tributes, one for the land units, the other for t he naval units. This is an arbitrary decision by the designer, which works in practice more than in theory (it's not very historical). So Strategos is better than Imperial Governor, but with several limitation for a real enjoyment of the game: only one scenario (and the Peloponnesian War was a very long affair!) and confused victory conditions.